descended from the Mountains of the Moon to an
alluvial plain, where Rumanika keeps thousands of cows. Once elephants
abounded here, but, since the increase of the ivory trade, these animals
had been driven off to the distant hills.

On the 16th they reached the Kitangule River, which falls into the
Victoria Nyanza. It was about eighty yards broad and so deep that it
could not be poled by the canoe-men, while it runs at a velocity of from
three to four knots an hour. It is fed from the high-seated springs in
the Mountains of the Moon. Speke believed that the Mountains of the
Moon give birth to the Congo as well as the Nile, and also the Shire
branch of the Zambesi.

The country through which they passed was a perfect garden of
plantations, surprisingly rich, while along the banks of the river
numberless harte-beestes and antelopes were seen.

At a village, where they were compelled to stop two days, drumming,
singing, screaming, yelling, and dancing went on the whole time, during
the night as well as day, to drive the _phepo_, or devil, away. In
front of a hut sat an old man and woman, smeared with white mud, and
holding pots of _pomba_ in their laps, while people came, bringing
baskets full of plantain squash and more pots of _pomba_. Hundreds of
them were collected in the court-yard, all perfectly drunk, making the
most terrific uproar.

The king sent messengers expressing his desire to see the white man, and
they were informed that he had caused fifty big men and four hundred
small ones to be executed because he believed that his subjects were
anxious to prevent them.

Speke now sent back to Grant, earnestly urging him to come on if he
possibly could, as he had little doubt that they would be able to
proceed across the country to the northward.

On approaching the capital, a messenger came to say that the king was so
eager to meet the white man that he would not taste food until he had
seen him.

The neighbourhood was reached on the 19th of February. Speke says it
was a magnificent sight; the whole hill was covered with gigantic huts,
such as he had never before seen in Africa. He proposed going at once
to the palace; but the officers considered that such a proceeding would
be indecent, and advised him to draw up his men and fire his gun off to
let the king know that he had arrived. He was excessively indignant at
being shown the dirty huts for his accommodation, in which the Arabs put
up when they